Brush College 5th-Grade Students Make Ornaments for the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

Fifth-grade students at Brush College Elementary School were excited when their teacher, Mrs. Pamela Sloan, recently shared about Oregon supplying the 2018 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree to Washington, D.C. Her students are working on an ornament project for the tree using pinecones.

The Christmas tree will come from the Sweet Home Ranger District of the Willamette National Forest. A different national forest has been chosen by the U.S. Forest Service to provide a tree each year since 1970. The last time the tree came from Oregon was 2002. Mrs. Sloan will be delivering her students’ fragile artwork to the Sweet Home Ranger District soon.

Oregonians have the chance to make handmade ornaments that celebrate the culture, history, people and landscapes of the state. Since early this year, the Sweet Home Ranger District has been collecting ornaments. They need 10,000 ornaments. A total of 3,500 ornaments will be nine- to twelve-inches long, while 6,500 need to be four- to six-inch ornaments. The ornaments must be submitted by October 1, 2018.